内容简介：
The obsession to find out whether or not he had a brother somewhere in the hinterlands of Northern Luzon, Philippines, drove Thomas Baxotter to a harrowing experienceaa traumatic trip that created in him an ambivalence at first towards, then disdain for, Filipinos. Irrational as it seemed, and he knew it, he could not help but distance himself from his Filipino friends. In the end, he reverts to a life of loneliness and boredom with but a little taste for life. Nonetheless, he had absorbed some ideas about the only colonyathe Philippinesathe U.S. has had, and for a time, felt proud of what Americans had done for it. But buttressing his disdain for the Filipinos was his conviction that they should have improved on what the Americans gave them instead of letting some things atrophy, such as the city that America built up there in Northern Philippines. Democracy Philippine-style made him think that the American gift was simply going to the dogs. And just the thought that he could be tricked again into eating dog made him shudder. That, in addition to his bad experience, made him steadfast in his resolve never again to visit the Philippines.